Resources

The country's biggest bank has called a halt to its branch-expansion strategy of a year ago. Instead, JPMorgan Chase this week said it would start building smaller, cheaper branches with fewer tellers and more technology, as well as more offices for financial planners to meet with its wealthiest clients. American Banker editors discuss JPMorgan's new branch strategy and what it could signal for other banks.

Big banks survived the financial crisis, but their ability to attract top young talent may not. That's the argument of Kevin Roose, author of the book "Young Money," which chronicles three years in the lives of eight young, and increasingly disenchanted, investment bank employees. Roose discusses why some of the junior bankers he shadowed have left finance; what banks can -- and can't -- do to change their cultures; and how the industry's efforts to promote diversity are still falling short.

Critics have complained recently that bank regulators and the Justice Department have been overstepping their legal authority and acting like moral police. American Banker staffers discuss what's behind the charges and whether they stand up to scrutiny.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's crackdown on mortgage servicers' operations will increase the pressure on lenders to improve their processes, paperwork and communications with borrowers. American Banker journalists discuss how both banks and nonbank servicers can get ahead of the new regulatory scrutiny.

The biggest banks are coming off a year when their stocks and profits soared. Yet below the surface, they face a number of vexing problems: more regulation, less lucrative trading, an inability to do big deals and lower multiples than many smaller rivals. American Banker staffers discuss whether such factors may some day encourage shareholders to agitate for breakups.

Large U.S. banks are facing several potential crises around the world, from emerging markets, within commodities and from China's slowed growth. Consultant Mayra Rodriguez Valladares questions whether changing regulatory standards have made the biggest banks sufficiently capitalized to withstand turmoil from these global problems.